


These Crazy Things

by Queerking



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Hand Jobs, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sex Pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 08:16:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queerking/pseuds/Queerking
Summary: Steve had an interesting week.





	These Crazy Things

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a prompt “there’s a curse for everyone to be in love with person A, but person B is strangely unaffected" 
> 
> This piece was the first thing that popped into my head, and it's kinda bothered me that it's not exactly a curse or love. So I am writing another fic where there actually is a curse and it's love because I do actually like that idea.
> 
> Writing this kept me up for two weeks, I was determined to get it done. 
> 
> Even though this is technically a sex pollen fic, the only nonconsensual act is a kiss between Steve and Natasha. 
> 
> If you want things to make some sense, please note:
> 
> I don't know how to tag "I hated AOU but I liked some stuff, so I will keep things I liked and could work with". In this story it doesn't come up but, they did fight Ultron, he just doesn't come from Bruce and Tony. 
> 
> Wanda and Peitro are Jewish in the comics and I hated the idea that they'd willingly work for hydra, so they were kidnapped. I didn't like that they killed Peitro, but i don't know his character well enough to write him and he's not pertinent to the story, so he's still gone. 
> 
> And Clint doesn't have his family, just Lucky and an apartment building in Brooklyn. 
> 
> If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The office was painted a nice blue, with plenty of windows to let in natural sunlight on good days. Living in the middle of nowhere in the new Avengers facility, the closest city was Poughkeepsie. Tony offered to just have a therapist on site, but Steve preferred to have a change of scenery. Steve had taken his usual seat on the couch and prepared himself to explain the past few days.

“So, Steve, it’s good to see you, as always. What happened this week, anything exciting?” His therapist, Dr. Nicole Thomas, asked from her armchair across from him.

The sessions were not at all what he expect, for one, he actually liked going to them. In the past, shrinks were for crazy people and Steve argued for weeks that he didn't need a therapist, that he wasn't crazy. To everyone's relief, with a whole lot of research and a good talk with Natasha, Steve finally agree to go to one session. On their first session, she gave him the option of calling her Dr. Thomas or by her first name. After a solid debate in his head, he decided to call her Nicole. So far, he isn't regretting his decision.

Steve cleared his throat, “It was interesting.”

She smiled at him, “A good interesting, hopefully?”

“Parts of it. I’ll start from the beginning.” Steve said, both he and Nicole settled in. Any story Captain America had, it was going to be a long one.

…

On Sunday, they received information about a lab in Cleveland, Ohio, said to have been doing illegal experimentation and kidnapping people to do them on.

It was not affiliated with HYDRA to their knowledge, which could be good or bad. Either it’ll uncover another organization worse or it’s just a small sector of curious, fucked up scientists.

Their information came from a girl who escaped and was currently residing in the Avengers tower in Manhattan. According to the victim, Brianna Beck, a number of experiments were being performed, things like human and animal hybrids, human enhancement, attempts at organ and limb regeneration, hormonal experimentation, failed attempts at cloning, and other horrifying things.

Amongst all these problems, one of them was that some of the people were volunteers. A handful of the enhanced people were guards, making sure that nothing escaped. Brianna was an unwilling victim but managed to fake her way into becoming a guard. She was a product of the animal hybrid experiments, her DNA being altered with that of a mountain lion. She revealed that she was the only survivor of that particular experiment so far.

According to Pepper, she was truly a sight to see.

…

On Monday the team was briefed by Steve on what their mission consisted of. “Our objectives are to collect any information, lock down the facility, arrest all scientists and legitimate volunteers, later to be taken into custody for questioning.” Steve looked up from his tablet that he was reading from, “This is a no kill mission, just information extraction and rescue, we need to keep everyone alive, including their security. That means tranquilizers only.”

“When do we leave and who is going?” Natasha asked, very bored and wanting to know if she’s actually needed. She didn’t care for formal meetings.

“Fortunately, we don’t need everyone. However, you are needed. As well as Clint, Wanda, Sam, and Bucky.” Steve had to force himself to keep a neural face. It pained him to put Bucky on missions, but it wasn’t his choice. Especially this mission, Steve would have his ass kicked into next decide if he tried to take Bucky off this case. The minute they both learned people were being illegally experimented on, it was a done deal.

“Do I need to summon Vision and Thor?” Wanda asked. Vision was currently with Thor, figuring out the properties of his stone combined with himself, their location at the moment was unknown. However, Wanda and Vision were connected, due to being products of the same stone and she was able to contact him.

But Steve waved her away, “That’s not necessary. No offense to either of them, but they’re not exactly stealthy and we can’t risk any of the equipment to be destroyed. We need that information to track down any accomplices.” Wanda nodded and smiled, amused that Vision was a dead giveaway.

“I should point out, however,” Wanda said, “these people are following studies that Herr Strucker led. When HYDRA fell, he didn’t care. He was technically one of their last leaders but it didn’t matter to him. He only cared about power, and science was his source.”

“So, what are you saying?” Steve asked. “It could actually be HYDRA?”

“I’m saying it could be one of their outlived echoes.” She said, concern clouding her face. Steve doesn’t blame her. She confided in him with a lot of stuff, like the fact that even though she and her brother wanted justice for their family, they never actually volunteered to be experimented on. The fact that it could be happening to other people in this country was probably tearing her up inside.

“Well that’s where we hit our wall.” Bruce sighed, “It could be a number of outlived organizations. Tony and Pepper took out A.I.M. but people might still be invested in their studies, which under investigation, also did these types of labs. It could even be former SHIELD scientists.”

Wanda pursed her lips and reluctantly nodded.

Tony got up and patted Bruce on the shoulder, “Alright, we’re gonna go follow those leads and then take a look at the wild cat to see exactly what we’re dealing with. Have fun storming the castle.”

With that, Bruce got up and waved while leaving, “Come back safe, please.”

Steve cleared his throat, “Alright, here is what the building looks like,” a 3D image of the place appeared on the table for everyone to see, “Natasha I’m assigning you to extract any information you can get your hands on, try to find a main frame. Clint you go with her for backup.” At this Clint gasped happily.

“Gives me a chance to use flash drive arrow.” Natasha groaned at his excitement. For all Steve knew, she’d probably seen every single arrow Clint has ever made.

“You have a arrow that’s also a flash drive?” Sam asked incredulously.

Clint answered proudly, “I got an arrow for everything.”

“Moving on.” Steve said pointedly. He then gave everyone their position. As luck would have it, the facility didn’t have a million levels, so it’s an opportunity to pair up and secure each floor and remain a stealth operation.

“Once all the arrests are made, we’ll give the go ahead for a trained team to be sent in to rescue all the animals and then our own task force to take the arrested to Damage Control.” The underground floor was then highlighted in red, “This is where all the animals are. This,” the floor above it was highlighted in blue, “is where everything is tested. And right here,” the next is highlighted in green, “is where the people are captive. We also have to assume it’s where the main frame and security camera room is. Any questions?” Steve asked.

Thankfully, no one said anything. “Alright, break for now, then strategy in the training room in an hour.”

…

On Tuesday morning, Steve woke up from a dream.The dream was a recurring one about him and Bucky. They just talked as weird things happened around them, like a million dogs passing by them or plants growing all around them.

It was nothing new and Steve had been assured in therapy that they were a manifestation of his anxiety about having Bucky within his vicinity for so long and not being separated. The solution was the difficult part to deal with. If he wanted them to stop, he would have to have a confirmation from Bucky that he would be staying or accept that nothing stayed forever. Steve wanted to do neither, so he stuck with the anxiety dreams and waking up at odd hours. And then ignore the implications until after coffee.

The sun wasn’t up yet, though he could hear birds nearby chirping. A glance at his bedside clock told him it was 6:24 in the morning. Again, he woke up before his alarm could get to it. Truth be told, there was little point in even having an alarm if he was just going to wake up beforehand. Well, that wasn’t actually true. When nightmares occurred to wake him up rather than his dream, his alarm woke him due to falling back asleep from exhaustion.

Needing his coffee, he dismissed the alarm before it got a chance to scream at him and trudged out of bed, slipped on his slippers and grabbed his robe from the hook on his door. It was quite the sight, Captain America wearing a robe, flannel boxers, a tank top, and black fuzzy slippers.

Sluggishly, he prepared the coffee, very grateful for the simplicity of modern technology. Their Keurig was such a blessing, so many options, so little effort. Then, like always Steve was startled by Bucky’s alarm. It’s always a different noise, this time being a song sounding like it came out of an Italian opera repertoire.

Steve stomped up to Bucky’s open door, “Why are you like this?”

Laughter bubbled up from the lump on the bed, “Because of this,” a metal arm came up from the lump and gestured to Steve. He loved getting on Steve’s nerves. Grumpy and tired, Steve just grunted and went back into the kitchen to grab his now done coffee, then sat down in the breakfast nook.

This was Bucky now. A little bit of old, a little bit of new. When they were young, Bucky hated Opera because his mother got her hands on any record of it she could. Now Bucky likes them and folk music because they help him remember and he gets lost in the lyrics. But big band also helps him remember and dancing too. Steve joins him, even though he still doesn’t know how to.

At first, when Bucky came back, all beat up, longer hair and big bushy beard and a backpack full of written memories, Steve knew he was still in love with him, but it was a dull edge. In the past, almost every day he would almost confess because Bucky was just so great and Steve was just bursting from the seams with it. But those first few months, Steve had no desire whatsoever to tell him. It wasn’t right. Bucky was extremely vulnerable and Steve only wanted him to just get better and be happy.

Then, when Bucky asked Steve to dance one night in their home, just to remind himself that he once did, Bucky finally looked happy. And Steve realized he was so proud and in love with him he almost shouted it. Except, just like old times, Steve held it in. And that’s where they were at now, Bucky being happy, waking up with loud women singing and trying to dig at Steve.

While he waited for Bucky to get up and get ready, he picked up the tablet from where it was charging on the table and looked over the reports on their mission so far.

Two agents went out to gather more intel last night and sent in final reports. Some of the comments about stake outs being so boring made Steve chuckle, yet the rest of the reading set him in a grim mood. They now have confirmation on some of the experiments being conducted. Using a small, undetectable drone, Agent Cole and Agent Booth witnessed two female subjects forced into an unbalanced fight. One subject was smaller and weaker, lost the fight, then was injected with something. She started to seize, no one came to her aid, then passed out looking extremely ill.

When she regained consciousness and got up, it’s described how her whole being changed. There was sudden muscle definition, she was taller. Outright aggression and brute strength appeared, both demonstrated on the bigger women from the fight. Neither agent was sure, but they think she killed the other women.

There was video feed attached that Steve watched, feeling sick to his stomach.

This meant that Steve’s suspicions of this facility were becoming true, they were making super human beings. The question was, why? It just seemed to be a fucked up lab with no outward intentions. Were they planning on a hostile takeover? Maybe Wanda was correct and they were people continuing the work of a former organization, being backed by some asshole who slipped through the cracks.

“You watching Johnny Weir videos again?” Bucky asked, sitting across from Steve with his unnecessarily sweet coffee, his long hair in a messy braid.

“Nah, just looking over this final report from the stake out last night. I had my suspicions about one of their intents and this kinda confirmed it.” Steve handed over the tablet for Bucky to read. He wished it was skating.

Like Steve, Bucky huffed a laugh at their boredom, then he grew tense and a frown set on his face. Then he muttered, “They’re making… Super soldiers…” but kept on reading, then also watched the feed.

“We need that data base. Once Natasha gets in, we can find out what they’re really doing. Who knows, they might actually be affiliated with HYDRA.” Steve said, then took a drink of his coffee.

Disgusted, Bucky shoved the tablet away and angrily sipped his drink. Steve knew the answer to this - running.

“Finish that, I wanna start our run before the sun is up.” Steve gestured to the drink as he took his own advice and gulped down his coffee, then got up. Bucky grumbled but followed his lead and they got dressed.

Their run was brutal due to Bucky being angry most of the time and running off his aggressions. It was definitely a good thing that no one was there to attempt to join them. Anyone else would have had a heart attack trying to keep up. It even found Steve lying on the asphalt for a second. He could tell Bucky badly wanted to do the same, but something in him prevented him from doing so.

The two went back to their place of the compound to hydrate and stretch all their muscles.

-

For a moment, Steve flushed, not exactly knowing if he should tell this part to his therapist. She knows how he feels about Bucky. They spent an entire four sessions hashing everything Bucky out - which still isn’t fully resolved and might not ever be. Like those dreams.

Though, Nicole noticed his hesitation, “You know the rule, everything you say is important but it’s always up to you to talk about it.” And yes, he knows that rule, she repeats it all the time. Not that he minds. It’s validating. So he continued.

-

There was a moment between them while stretching. They always help each other if there’s a particular muscle that needs work. Doesn’t make Steve any less nervous every time though.

“Ugh, Steve can you get my leg, it’s being a jackass.” Bucky said, looking frustrated with his left leg. Steve swallowed and he got up.

“Is it that knot again?” Steve asked, regardless of knowing the answer. During Bucky’s time under HYDRA, he received a nasty stabbing in his upper thigh in 1996. It healed because of his serum but not perfectly. The muscles would knot up after a brutal run.

Bucky bent his leg and Steve saddled up close to brace the offered shin against his stomach, then gently grabbing Bucky around the waist and pulled them together, stretching out his muscles. Bucky let out a gasp of breath and counted from ten.

Steve wanted to keep his eyes averted, but his tortuous eyes decided to look up anyways. That was the moment Bucky glanced down and their eyes met. If Steve wasn’t anxious, sweating, and turning red, he sure as hell was now. Then Bucky had to go and fucking smile. That was nearly it, Steve had almost given in, close the distance between them, give Bucky the one reason why they wouldn’t be close friends anymore.

Softly, Bucky spoke, “Thanks pal, it’s good now.” And Steve was almost too distracted to catch that, but then he finally began to process that everything was fine. He hadn’t ruined anything and he could release his grip on Bucky’s waist. It was horrible, every time he helped Bucky stretch he almost lets the words lose, it was worse than dancing.

So he gave an awkward smile and gently let Bucky’s leg down, muttering, “Yeah, no problem.”

However, Bucky stayed close when his foot was on the floor and just looked at him for a second, his eyes searching Steve’s own. Just as Bucky opened his to say something, they both jumped out of their skin, startled by someone banging on their door.

“15 minutes until the meeting!” Natasha yelled. She was just passing by, her and Clint’s quarters were down the right of the hall.

“Thanks!” Steve yelled back, and got one smack on the door to let him know she heard. Whatever that moment with Bucky was, it was now broken. With a huff, Steve edged to the bathroom, “I’m gonna shower first real quick.”

Even though it was pointless, as they were about to go on a mission. Still, no reason to go sweaty.

…..

The meeting consisted of everyone reaffirming their positions, making sure communications were working, and that they had the necessary equipment. Steve was in a different stealth suit, this one being black, several electric stunners, and actually carrying a gun. Granted, the gun was a tranq, but still. And hopefully, he wouldn’t have to use the stunners, he personally fucking hated getting electrocuted, it became harder to do it to someone else.

Then everyone was briefed again in the SRT van, Steve making sure everyone knew what they were doing and updating them with the final morning reports. Natasha and Clint then explained their plan; they would be taking the roof first, getting a five minute head start so if they were needed later, they could join capture quicker. That is, if none of the victims needed immediate medical attention.

The van was a huge black tactical vehicle, it could carry their equipment, and had enough room for the group they were taking. With it being a custom Stark SRT van, he’d never seen the button for it, Steve is nearly positive it can fly or hover.

There would be endless old jokes about the subject if Steve said anything, but truth be told, he liked the big van much better than the quinjet. Maybe it was because of his Atlantic swan dive, the helicarier attack, or Sokovia, but there was just something great about being on the ground and still have accessible technology that didn’t make his stomach lurch. He doesn’t have too many fond memories of being up in the air. It just made more sense to be stealthy in a van. Their plan was to park it a block away and break into the facility. Where the hell would they park the quinjet without alerting anyone? 

Bucky was driving while Steve rode passenger. He’s not quite sure how this was agreed upon, but it was a mistake for sure. Because Steve was an asshole when he got bored. What was worse, Bucky wasn’t having it. For every finger stuck in his ear, Bucky would squeeze the hell out of Steve’s thigh, with every poke to his cheek, Bucky would punch him very hard in the shoulder - Steve being lucky it wasn't the metal one.

They spent the entire ride picking on each other, switching between driving, and talking.

Another moment arose between them, everyone in the back of the van had fallen asleep for a nap. They’re still driving through the endless hell that is Pennsylvania, about five hours into their trip, two more hours to go.

Quietly, Steve and Bucky were playing a true or false game. When Bucky came back to Steve a year ago, he claims to have remembered everything from his past. This has come up enough times for the game to have been born. Steve states a fact or lie about their past and Bucky tells him if it’s true or false, and then vice versa. Right now, it’s Bucky’s turn.

“Alright, alright,” he said while tapping his finger on the steering wheel, “You did not like Emily Knight from grade school. True or false?”

Laughter bubbled up from Steve, “Of course you would ask that. Yeah, nope. Didn’t like her. She told everyone you wet your pants when we were in the second grade and I covered for you. I put water on my front-” Bucky was cracking up.

“- You put water on your front and told everyone it was the other way around. Even though I never peed myself!” The way Bucky was laughing now, Steve thought he might pee himself.

Steve huffed, “You knew that was true, you just wanted to bring up that up.”

Bucky patted him on the shoulder, his other hand on the wheel, “It was a brave act of heroism, Stevie.” The statement was marred by his giggling.

“At least I didn’t get pantsed.” Steve smirked.

This made Bucky giggle even more, “You know damn well the only person who was scarred from that was you.”

“The image of your penis still haunts me.” Steve bemoaned. It wasn’t totally a lie. It haunted him, just for very different reasons. And it wasn’t even the only time he saw Bucky half naked anyways considering they lived together in the past and present. “Why you weren’t wearing underwear is still a mystery to me.”

“I guess it’s been a couple of years,” Bucky said. “I’ll tell you, but you gotta come clean about something too.”

“Okay, deal.”

Bucky sighed, “I feel asleep naked the night before and honest to God forgot to put on underwear when getting ready for school that morning.”

Steve had to cover his mouth to not cackle loudly and wake up his team. But his shoulders shook with laughter and a loud snort escaped him. “Yeah,” Bucky muttered, but still smiled, “yuck it up, Rogers. You gotta tell me something equally as embarrassing!”

“Worth it,” Steve wheezed. He did have to think on it though. There weren’t too many secrets between them. After a minute, Steve decided to roll with the theme they had going. “I got one. I’ve done many missions, willingly, not wearing underwear because the fabric felt - nice.”

-  
Again, Steve was aware he could tell his therapist everything, as she was a very relaxed women, but Steve may have left out the details of this particular bonding moment.

Not only was it embarrassing, but he also wanted it to just be between him and Bucky, not for prying eyes. Luckily, she wasn’t the type to interrupt very often and didn’t need the details anyhow.

-

Bucky hooted with laughter and tried so hard to stifle it for the others in the van. Affection rushed at Steve. Looking at Bucky being happy always did that to him. Frustration gnawed at him when these feelings for Bucky came up. His therapist told him he would feel so much better if he told Bucky how he felt, but only at the proper time. Even if Bucky or Steve were on the ice for most of their time, it’s still a long wait to keep a secret like that bottled up. And she’s right, Steve feels if he were to confess, a great weight would be off his shoulders, but the guilt for putting Bucky in that situation would be extremely overwhelming to Steve and he can’t handle it quite yet.

When Steve is feeling particularly brave, Nicole has him tell her everything he feels for Bucky and why. Those are the best and most brutal sessions and Steve loves them. It gives him a fighting chance at still keeping his friendship with Bucky, yet she is under the impression that the feelings are mutual. Something about either being the most loyal man in history, or the most in love man in history. Regardless, Steve doesn’t think it’s possible.

“Okay, it’s your turn.” Bucky slapped his shoulder, bringing Steve from his thoughts.

Steve cleared his throat, always caught off guard by his feelings. “Alright. You, uh, you read to me when I got sick and couldn’t leave bed.”

Bucky threw Steve a soft smile, “Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t just do it when you were sick though, I remember doing it when you asked me to, like on rainy days.” That was true too. Steve just really loved hearing him read, he made whatever book come to life. Very rarely, Steve would be the reader, he got caught up and ran out of breath too much to do it often, but Bucky always listened with rapt attention. Though, for some reason, Steve wasn’t about to go mentioning that.

They continued their game for about thirty more minutes then stopped because people started waking up. Since Steve and Bucky were partners on this mission, they went over their plan again. Talking definitely seemed make time pass by quickly and soon enough, they had arrived at the destination.

The building was nothing special, just an ordinary office. Though Steve knew better than to underestimate it. Not wasting any time, Natasha and Clint got out of the van with their gear at the ready to go sneak in the roof of the building. “Secure channel five.” Steve muttered into his communication line.

“Secured five.” Clint responded first. “Whoever finds the best way to the roof buys coffee.”

“You’re on.” Natasha accepted, Steve could practically hear her smirk.

Everyone else geared up and got out of van, waiting for Natasha and Clint to find their position. For this particular mission, Steve had to forego his shield. It didn’t make sense to take down a facility with a giant target on his back, even though it did stop him from getting shot. Instead he just wore body armor that Tony designed. But with any luck, Steve wouldn’t get shot at.

A while back, Natasha and Bucky had been training everyone to do stealth missions to widen their mission repertoire. No one had to know that Steve enjoyed his one on one lessons with Bucky. Not that his lessons with Natasha weren’t enjoyable, but it really let him see how Bucky operated.

However, the most surprising outcome of the lessons was how well Sam and Wanda worked together. Tony made many upgrades for everyone, but he had a field day updating Sam’s tech.

The first addition was a drone that Sam could control. It was a tiny robot that did unnoticeable surveillance, all controlled from a panel on Sam’s arm and resembled a paper airplane. At first, Tony just called it Red 1, but Sam really liked it and started calling it Red Wing. Tony warned him that it wasn’t ever going to stay the same, he was already working on a newer model, one that could shoot.

Then it turned out that as Natasha had been training Wanda the hardest out of everyone - due to her inability to predict people’s movements - Sam became her eyes with Red Wing. Wanda responded positively to his careful instructions and appreciated his humor, which kept her calm.

“Location found.” Clint whispered, sounding triumphant.

“Dammit.” Natasha cursed. “Securing top floor now, second team ready position.”

While Natasha and Clint took out the security on their floor, Steve and Bucky took their position to breach the level floor. They went behind the building, into an exit next to the buildings dumpsters. After scanning the number code with his phone, Bucky checked the door and affirmed the exit led to a stairwell.

“Third team, position secure, entrance location found.” Steve whispered. A minute later, Wanda and Sam were next to them, ready for their signal.

Five minutes passed and Clint whispered, “Hostages found and secure, liberating now. I’m calling for a medic team on standby, Steve. Some of them don’t look too good.”

“We’ll hurry up then.” Steve replied.

Natasha confirmed, “Top floor secured, extracting data, move in second team.”

That was the signal for Steve and Bucky to move out. Bucky took the lead, just like in practice. “Second team moving out, securing the area.” Bucky whispered as they entered the building. They climbed the stairs and came up to the door. Steve had a neat device that read the heartbeat of anyone within a hundred yards and could scan through a number of metals reinforcing a wall.

He raised it up to Bucky’s heart and smiled, “Despite what you say, you do have a heart.”

Bucky snorted and shook his head, “Focus. How many signatures?”

“Hang on.” Steve scanned the room, “About eleven. More on the left side than the right. Best bet, security on the right, desks on the left.”

“You take the right, I’ll take the left. You go first.” Bucky commanded.

Steve silently moved through the door, and entered into a dimly lit hallway. From the reports and his scan, it’s safe to assume a lab is beyond the wall in front of him. There’s no door in immediate sight, so it must be at the far right of the hallway. When Steve makes his way near the entrance he spots the four signatures, split between two men and two women in tact far gear. They’re facing the door that leads out into the parking lot, looking ready to stop any threat that comes at them. Two of them have strange patterns on their skin that aren’t scars, but also not tattoos. It’s possible that since the experiments were successful on their victim, Brianna, they’ve come out with more animal hybrid people, as the patterns match tiger stripes. Perfect. It’s safe to assume everyone present in the hallway is enhanced.

Quickly, Steve slipped into the broom closet before anyone could do their rounds. He had to take out all four guards without alerting anyone in any of the labs, because if they caught wind that they were being shut down, they’ll either erase all of their evidence or back it up and encrypt as much as possible.

Luckily, this came up in training, so Steve took out his scanner and watched the red dots beat. Soon someone broke from the herd and moved to walk the corridor. When the dot moved back towards the entrance again, Steve set down his scanner and moved quickly. As silently as he could, Steve snuck from the closet and started to choke out his opponent, one meaty bicep around his neck and a hand to cover his mouth. After ten seconds, the hands that came up to claw at Steve’s arm died away and his body went limp.

As Steve stowed the passed out guard away into the closet, he hoped he guessed correctly that the leader of the little group would send someone to check on their guy. After two minutes, the scanner showing someone coming his way, passed the door. Same situation, Steve went out and choked the girl until she passed out. She was harder to take down because her nails had thickened into points and had bitten into Steve’s arm. Animal enhancement for sure. Steve took out his silenced gun and shot her and the other guy in the neck with a tranquilizer just in case.

It was simple from then on out. He strolled into the hallway and waited for the last two guards to check on the situation. Three minutes pass and the minute Steve spots two heads, his gun is up and shoots them in the head. Down they went.

The tranquilizers that Bruce invented are great. They still haven’t found a good combination to sedate the Hulk, but Bruce definitely had an array of sedatives that work to different degrees on both Steve and Bucky. Knowing the mission included enhanced individuals, Steve loaded in with some that were stronger ones that were bead shaped and burst on the skin. It knocked out Steve for about an hour and would knock out a regular person for several depending on their mass.

Steve wasted no time and started stashing the bodies into the full closet. Next, he scouted out the door leading to the lab. It was a very modern area, the front wall was clear glass as well as the door. Scientists walked on by, not caring about anything what expect for whatever was in their hands.

There was something also very apparent. Somehow since the last report Steve received and now, some of the scientists took on a wilder appearance. This was bad. There were too many options for what happened to those people. It could have been a delayed reaction or they’d run out of volunteers, or it was an extra safety precaution. Steve went back down the hall to stand in front of the closet. If anyone woke up, he’d be there to take them back out.

“Move in.” Steve whispered into his communication line to Bucky.

The door at the end of the hall opened and Bucky emerged, loading his stun gun.

“Might wanna up the dosage. Some aren’t human anymore.” Steve suggested.

“That’s not good.” Bucky muttered, following Steve’s advice. “This place is fucking weird. How come it’s never been on the radar before?”

Steve heaved a sigh, “They’d been working under the guise of medical research. Any time inspection hit, there was a big show to put on. Which means they have a big backer.”

“This building doesn’t make sense though. It looks like a rented out office space.” Bucky gestured to their hallway. He had a point, it was a dull place to run an advanced research facility.

“Not every evil lab runs in a mansion or a giant corporate building I guess.” Steve shrugged.

“It would make me feel better about this.” Bucky said, then cocked his gun, “Be back soon.”

Now it was just a waiting game, just like Bucky had to wait for Steve. As much as he didn’t like that Bucky felt the need to fight and continue to go on missions, he actually liked the way they still worked together. In the war, they were half improvising and then half using what they’d learned in the military. Steve and Bucky were already good strategists before the war, seeing as how they’d had to plan ahead for so many obstacles in life.

The war shaped them better, but SHIELD and HYDRA refined and honed their skills.

It just bothers Steve that Bucky feels the need to serve some sort of penance for what HYDRA enslaved him to do. When they first reconnected, Bucky had many nightmares about being used against everyone again which led to an argument about being put back into cryogenic sleep. Steve was very pleased when Tony and Bruce refused to build anything like that, especially when they had known what happened to Bucky in the first place.

Then Wanda offered her own solution with her powers and that was that. Bucky was completely free of HYDRA when she and him worked to unlock his mind, yet Steve felt Bucky may never shake off the guilt that haunts him. He pushes himself to do these missions and at the end of the them, Bucky is obviously mentally and physically drained because it’s a very taxing job.

Even Steve himself knows he can’t do it for much longer.

“First floor secure, extracting secondary data, move in third team.” Bucky announced into the comms. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, it was a good opportunity to restrain the guards with the special cuffs.

One by one, Steve put each guard’s hands behind their back and attached a set of new cuffs Tony designed. They were made from titanium and neodymium, giving it a maximum magnetic bind and a tough unbreakable bond. Steve and Bucky cannot get out of them, they can only briefly separate the two pieces for about a second.

When that was done, he went to go join Bucky in the lab. The room was very quiet except for Bucky tapping out codes to install Friday send all the information to Tony and will be wiping the original data. He was gathering any additional information from this labs hard drive that might not be in the mainframe. Natasha warned them that there are always backups.

As for the scientists, they were all peacefully unconscious from where Bucky knocked them out.

“This is almost too easy, Steve. Be on the lookout.” Bucky warned him. He was right. They’re good, but not this good. Usually some sort of fight breaks out by this point.

“Status, Natasha.” Steve felt the need to check on her and Clint.

“Status clear, Rogers.” Natasha reassured him. “We’re both fine. Wanda just infiltrated the last floor, so it’s about done. I’m gonna go ahead and call in the arrest team. They should be here in 20.”

“Sounds good. Stay alert.” Steve replied.

“Friday, this seems right up HYDRA’s ally, why aren’t they on the radar for this.” Bucky asked then looked over to Steve. It was a fair question and Steve was curious about it too.

Friday answered, “There’s really no evidence for who is supporting this project. They use code names for everything. For instance, this specific project for animal and human genetic testing is called Project Chimera and the only project leader listed is called 6. The only evidence that leads away from HYDRA is the coded pattern.”

“That actually sounds right.” Bucky admitted. “Sure, they used codenames, but they weren’t hidden meaning names like this. It was more obvious, dehumanizing or powerful. I once met a prick who wanted to be called Death Wish.”

“It could be a branch of HYDRA.” Steve suggested.

Bucky shrugged, “Could be. Stark will find out. Hey - you’re bleeding.”

Honestly, Steve completely forgot about that. “Oh, yeah. One of the guards stuck her claws into my arm. Dunno why I’m still bleeding though.”

“Mr. Barnes, could you scan Captain Rogers arm with your phone please?” Friday interjected before Bucky could inspect it himself. He did as he was asked though. The blue silvery projection of the scan went over Steve’s forearm and highlighted a strange substance inside the five punctures. “They seemed to have stunned your cells from healing your arm, Captain. Can you feel your arm?”

Now that Friday mentioned it, there was a numb, fuzzy feeling to it, as if it had started to fall asleep. “I can feel my hand and upper arm, but the infected area doesn’t seem to be awake.”

“What do I do?” Bucky demanded. Anyone else would mistake him for calm and authoritative, but Steve knew better. Bucky was trying his hardest not to panic.

“What you would regularly do to treat a wound. Flush it out with water, apply a triple antibiotic ointment and bandage it.” Friday explained. “I’m searching through the data and I think the chemical is a temporary antidote to their own enhancement serum. The antibiotic should counter it.”

Swiftly, Bucky hustled Steve over to the nearest sink to wash his arm. Many lectures from Sam had them all carrying a small medic holster. Bucky kept his strapped on his left thigh.

The bleeding subsided when Bucky started to dry it. When that was done, he ripped into a tiny foil packet of the ointment to gently smear onto the claw marks. Oddly, it felt nice to Steve. It was a weird, intimate moment for them, kinda reminiscent of when Bucky used to take care of him before the war. Bucky’s worry was clear on his face as he began to dress it with the gauze and tape, an emotion Bucky would always direct at Steve, no matter what year they got stuck in.

“Must have coated her nails in the stuff.” Bucky muttered.

“Yeah. But why? Do they use it on each other?” Steve wondered. Could they have possibly known Steve would be there? Why not keep a syringe full and just kill him outright if that were true?

“We’ll find out in interrogation.” Bucky sighed, then tapped his comms, “Rogers was minorly injured, but the enemy infected her claws in some sort of chemical. Wanda, be careful. Natasha, Clint, any injuries?”

“I’m good,” Clint responded first, “Nat says she’s fine. How is - shit!” He was cut off and they both knew why.

Because both Steve and Bucky cursed too, as two silent agents stabbed each of them in the neck with what felt like a needle. It was definitely a needle, because Steve felt a liquid being injected into him. Immediately, it began to make his skin feel itchy and incredibly hot. Steve and Bucky both went into action and began to fight off the new offenders.

Steve slapped the hand off his neck, then removed the syringe to fling it far away from him. The woman before him was tiny and fast. He went for his gun, then had to grapple with her as she had tried to take it from him. After a few minutes of dodging punches that definitely hurt, Steve finally got the upper hand and was able to shoot her in the gut. She slumped down onto the ground and Steve shot her again to make sure she stayed knocked out.

When Steve turned around, Bucky had also defeated the skinny man that had injected him.

“I hate getting stabbed.” Bucky grunted as he bent down to pick up his syringe.

“What the fuck was that about?” Steve demanded, to no one in particular. “Friday, can you scan us?” He took out his phone and the projection flowed over Bucky, who did the same for Steve.

“There’s nothing wrong with either of you.” Friday reassured them. “The only thing is that your body temperature, for the both of you is slightly elevated and your pulse is high.”

“No shit, we just fought off two assassins.” Bucky spat out. Then he barked into the communication line, “Barton, status?”

“Bitch injected something into me.” Clint said, breathless.

“Two assassins just jumped us.” Natasha followed up, also breathless.

Steve sighed, “Same here. But you guys are okay?”

“I got punched in the face, but other than that, I’m fine.” Clint muttered.

“Wanda, Sam? Status?” Steve asked.

Wanda gasped, “We were also ambushed, but now we’re fine.”

“And the floor is clear.” Sam said. “Time for clean up.”

It was a huge weight off his shoulders. Steve was very proud he pushed for a specialized relief team to oversee the arrests.

“Alright, let’s pack it in and wait for the crew.” Steve ordered. Quickly, both of them bound their respective assassins and then deposited them into the hall. Bucky helped Steve dump the closet full of guards into the hall as well. They returned to the van and Bucky drove it to the entrance where everyone was waiting. Their only job now was to wait for the medical crew, arrest team, Damage Control and animal control.

…

Back at the compound, Steve was forced by Bucky to swing by medical. Since they no longer had to remain inconspicuous, Tony arranged the quinjet to pick them up and quickly get them back home, leaving someone else to drive the van back over. Honestly, Steve wasn’t complaining. The sooner he got everything over with, the sooner he would know what everyone was injected with, then they could be treated, and go to bed.

First, they examined his arm, which had finally started to heal correctly, and were just a set of dark scars across his right forearm. Then they examined his neck and began the bloodwork labs. When they were finished with him, he then had to sit with Bucky as the medics examined him. He still had issues with labs and scientists. He quietly told Steve one day that doing the medic labs were easier together. So unless Bucky’s in peril, the doctors wait for Steve to be there.

As they waited, the team took the time to finally go over the aspects of their takedown and compare notes. Steve learned that only he, Bucky, and Natasha shot their targets twice. Nat assured them that Clint is just forgetful and probably would’ve as well. When talking about the animals, Wanda mentioned they also kept an assortment of insects. She looked haunted by that fact. But Steve was grateful she noticed, it was useful information for Tony and Bruce.

Unfortunately, after thirty minutes of work, the medics were unable to identify what the substance was and they would have to wait for Bruce and Tony to fly over. Fortunately, this meant Steve could go to sleep earlier than expected. There was time to plan and speculate later.

…

Something was vibrating.

It was very irritating.

Eyes peeling open, Steve looked to the frantic vibrating to his right. It was his phone that had woken him, someone was calling. Squinting against the bright light, Steve saw that it was Bruce who was calling. This woke Steve up more, because while Bruce did occasionally call him, he had never called at 3 o'clock in the morning.

“Yes?” Steve sat up, his voice low and raspy from sleep.

“Steve,” Bruce whispered, “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t risk it. I’m sorry.”

“What?” Steve asked, “You couldn’t risk what?” He was immediately out of bed and put on the black combat pants he discarded onto the floor and then hunted for a shirt.

“The girl. She got out of control and escaped. She knocked Tony out with a tranquilizer and locked me in the Hulk room.” The room he was talking about was specially designed to detain him if anything unfortunate happened in the lab.

“What do you mean she escaped?”

Bruce made a frustrated noise, “I mean when Tony and I were studying her blood samples and your blood samples, then Friday warned us that Beck was making her way to the lab and then Tony is suddenly out cold and I’m being manhandled into the room.”

That was extremely alarming to hear that someone was able to manhandle Bruce anywhere, “How the hell did she manage that?” Steve opted out of searching for a shirt and made the long trek to the armory, banging on Bucky’s door on his way.

“I didn’t want to hurt Tony and also risk damaging any of the equipment in that lab.” Bruce defended himself.

“Okay. Well do you have any tracking on her?”

Suddenly, there was yelling on the other end of the line, “It’s okay! It’s okay! Calm down, Tony!” So Tony was now awake, “I’ll explain in a minute. Steve?”

“Still here.” Steve assured while entering the room, searching for a light switch.

“Okay, Beck took one of the cars. She’s definitely heading towards you guys.”

“But why?” Steve said, more talking out loud than actually asking.

“I can only assume that this was a huge trap.” Bruce answered anyways. “Either she’s under control or under cover. It’s not looking good.”

Bucky then entered the armory, looking frazzled and tired, “What’s going on? Where’s your shirt?”

“Something is wrong, I’ll tell you in a minute.” Steve assured him, then went back to his conversation with Bruce, “Did she do anything else while she was there?”

Bruce sighed, “Yeah she actually kind of fucked us. I don’t know how she did it, but the tower is down. Only emergency lights are on. I luckily have access to Friday from my phone, which is how I’m tracking Beck, but that’s about it. Tony is reversing it as we speak. Listen Steve, before everything went to shit, we were also getting the results from the injections everyone received.”

“We’re you able to figure it out?” Steve asked eagerly.

“I was only able to figure out that it was an extracted pheromone, but not what it would do. I do know that your injection was different from everyone else though. As soon as Tony fixes the power issue, I’ll figure it out and let you know. Just be aware, I’m pretty sure it was a way to incapacitate you guys.” Bruce explained.

“Okay, thank you Bruce. I’m gonna go get the rest of the team, update me when the tower is back up.” They said goodbye, and hung up on each other. Steve then turned to Bucky, who looked flushed and confused.

As Steve explained, he finally gave up on the light and turned on his phone flashlight to illuminate their weaponry. Steve went for his shield back holster that strapped onto him and picked up his shield to hook it on. It was a little uncomfortable without a shirt on, and the cold metal of the shield kept grazing his back. Trying to ignore the discomfort, he then grabbed for the tranquilizers and their respective guns and a holster he strapped to his thigh. He tossed a loaded one to Bucky, who fumbled for it. Now Steve was really concerned.

“Bucky, are you okay?” He approached him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Bucky seemed visibly stumped by Steve’s touched, shook his head and took a deep breath, “I’m - I’m good. I just, I feel light headed. You smell different. Did you take a shower?”

The question threw Steve, but regardless he answered, “Uh, no. I went immediately to bed.” Bruce’s words about their condition floated through his head, “I think whatever they poisoned us with is finally affecting you. We need to check on the others.”

Sluggishly, Bucky shook his head, “I don’t really feel incapacitated though i just feel -” He stopped himself and cleared his throat, “Uh - just really tired.” Steve squinted and Bucky just shrugged. “But we really should check on the others. You and I have the serum, they’re worse off.”

Steve couldn’t argue with that and lead the way out into the corridor. As they walked through, Steve tried to flip on lights but none turned on. He cursed, “Whatever Beck did to the tower, it affected our compound.”

“Then we need to turn on the generator, we can’t fight with flashlights. Tony told me if something happened to the power, it wouldn’t work on everything, but at least we’ll have light and we’ll be able to call in the agents.” Bucky explained. While there were plenty of rooms available, only the Avengers lived on the compound. Any staff they had on hand was welcome to stay there, but they had their own lives. All the agents and scientists lived in their own homes, but they were equipped with their own Avenger alarm. Steve was willing to bet it was disabled. They were on their own for now.

“Fine, let’s turn on some power before we get the others. I’d rather see an attack coming at us.” Steve rerouted and they made their way downstairs to the basement.

“Okay, so what are our options?” Bucky asked. “Beck escaped, either of her own volition or she’s being controlled and is coming down here to do what? Kill us?”

“We have to assume so. But she didn’t kill Tony.” Steve mentioned.

“She wouldn’t have tried to with Bruce there, she’d die on the spot.” Bucky pointed out.

“Right.” The corridor they were walking through would’ve been pitch black if it weren’t for their flashlights. It was definitely a good idea to turn on the power first, the rest of the team wouldn’t have been able to see a thing while Steve and Bucky could. Seeing in the dark was strange, because for Steve, everything was just shadowed shapes in complete darkness, it wasn’t ideal for combat.

He never really considered just how ominous and foreboding the compound was without light.

They finally made it to the stairwell that lead to the big electrical room. Bucky wasted no time on flipping switches and pushing buttons on the ridiculously big generator. Soon enough, something clunked into place and dim lights flickered on.

“When did you learn how to do that?” Steve asked as he turned of the light on his phone.

“When the hurricanes were hitting a couple months ago, it occurred to me, so I asked Stark about it.” Bucky lead them back out to the stairs, “He talked my ear off about what I should do during a power outage and how he made the whole thing himself because it runs on his energy source.”

“Good thinking.” Steve said, grateful that Bucky thought ahead.

-

“I know things are already pretty strange,” Steve mentioned to her, “But this is the part that gets…” He trailed off, not quite sure how to describe what happened after Bucky restored the power.

“Weirder?” Nicole offered, her tone sympathetic.

Steve nodded, “Very, very weird. And embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?” She asked, taken off guard, “How so?”

With a deep breath, Steve continued.

-

The best course of action was to first check on Clint and Natasha, since they shared a room together. At least after missions. Clint still preferred to live in Bed-Stuy so he could keep an eye on his tenants. Secretly, Steve was envious of Clint. He got to live in Brooklyn and make sure the people who lived less than perfect lives in his building were at least living safe. Even Bucky didn’t know Steve wanted that life.

Not thinking he would need it, Steve set down his shield on door frame and then cautiously, Steve and Bucky crept into their room. When Bucky turned on a lamp, Steve thought at first both Natasha and Clint were very sick. They were sweating, panting and very flushed.

That thought changed though, because when Natasha woke up, she surged upwards at Steve and sealed her mouth onto his, her hands going for the front of Steve’s pants.

“Whoa!” He heard Bucky exclaim, then helped Steve extract her off him and restrained her to the bed. She struggled wildly, legitimately growling at them. One particular flair of limbs had Bucky groaning in pain, but he didn’t relent with his hold on her and Steve realized she must have directed a knee into Bucky’s groin. Steve was very grateful to have Bucky around and felt so sorry for him.

Then, Steve felt arms loop around his waist, and a hot mouth kissing his neck and it dawned on him that Natasha wasn’t going to be their only problem. They had three other problems. As quickly as he could, he grabbed Clint’s wrist, turned them both around and twisted his arm against his back. Clint made the same noises Natasha was making. They definitely were not in their right mind. Steve took out his gun and shot Clint in the back with a tranq. He immediately went limp and flopped onto the bed.

Knowing that was going to be an uncomfortable position to wake up from, Steve picked him up and laid him back horizontal on the bed. Then he turned to where Bucky was still struggling to pin down Natasha and shot her in the forehead.

Like Clint, she too went completely limp. Bucky groaned and rolled off of her to sit on the floor. Steve pretended not to noticed he was cradling his crotch, which had to be causing him a lot of pain.

“You good?” Steve asked, kneeling and checking Bucky over for any other injuries.

Bucky grunted out, “God damn, she plays dirty when she has no inhibition. I really hope we didn’t wake up Sam and Wanda. I just wanna lock them all up, knock Beck the fuck out, and go to bed.”

Steve smiled, got up and offered his hand to pull him up, “Let’s go do that then.”

-

“I’m sorry,” Nicole interjected, “I don’t mean to interrupt but the drug was…?”

“Ah,” Steve rubbed the back of his neck, “sexual aggression. Totally inhibits any thoughts unrelated to mating.”

“Are you okay? I need to make sure.” She asked, concerned.

Nicole studied in a field of military psychology, PTSD, veterans of various sexual identities, and military sexual abuse. It was both due to worry and her job to ask those questions.

“Yeah! No, I’m totally fine.” He smiled awkwardly. “Nothing bad happened to me. That way.” His face was definitely red.

She nodded and gestured for him to continue.

-

Their plan for this problem was to sneak into both Wanda and Sam’s room and knock them out and then manually lock down their rooms. Unfortunately it didn’t exactly play out that way.

As soon as they left the room, before Steve could even get a hold of his shield, Sam ambushed them. He got his hands on Steve first and attempted to pin him to the wall. As Steve easily broke the hold and reversed their position, he couldn’t help but think this was a very strange and near weak distraction for whatever Beck and her people were after. This time Bucky shot Sam, while Steve held him in place. Just like with the others, he went limp and sagged into Steve’s arms. Trying his hardest to be careful, Steve lifted up his friend and walked back into Natasha’s room to deposit him onto the bed.

Something then occurred to him as he walked out and reattached his shield to his back holster, “I think we might have a bigger issue with Wanda. Can’t she control people?”

Bucky froze, realizing the same thing. Though it didn’t stop him from coming up with a plan, “Alright, tag team. I’ll go in first and try to take her out. If she gets me first, you sneak up on her.”

It was not the best plan, but according to Clint when he avoided her attack, it was by electrocuting her with an arrow he was holding. Which Steve was definitely not a fan of.

Luck was not on their side with this one as well. Steve waited outside her room as Bucky snuck in. Almost instantly, Bucky yelped. Steve burst into the room, gun out and ready to shoot. Bucky was suspended in the air, red magic glowing around his body. He almost forgot what it was like to have Wanda’s magic crawl on him. Last time, it bound him to his mind. This time, she bound his entire body still and it felt like every nerve in his body was being set on fire. There was no escape. There was no way he could withstand an attempt to escape.

Wanda stood at the end of her bed, hair wild and eyes glazed over, though glowing with the same color as her magic. She then began to saunter over to him.

Everything happened so quickly, her head snapped back, she collapsed down onto the ground. Steve gasped for air as he was freed from her painful grip. Bucky was also on the floor, gun still poised from shooting her in the back of the head.

“You okay?” Steve asked, voice shaky. He rushed over to him and began looking him over, even though he knew nothing would be wrong.

Bucky, having never experienced her magic so aggressive like that, blew out a breath he’d been holding, looking frazzled. “I’m good. Either she can’t focus on two people, or just couldn’t focus in general. Her hold broke on me.”

“Glad she did, otherwise I don’t know what would’ve happened.” Steve said quietly. It was partially a lie and they both knew it.

For a moment, they just sat there, both unsettled by being touched with Wanda’s magic. Last time, Natasha was the only one visibly rattled because she had very true horrors to relive. This time, being embraced by it was extremely draining. Steve hated the feeling of being burned, there was absolutely no control about it. You just have to take it until there’s a point where you don’t feel anything.

And then there was Bucky. There was no telling what he felt when she got him. It was these situations where Steve had no idea what he should ask. Obviously, neither of them were okay. Was he reliving trauma, like Natasha? If he wasn’t, Steve didn’t want to remind him.

Luckily, he didn’t have to ask anything. Bucky took a deep breath and got up, then offered Steve a hand. “We gotta start the manual lockdown for them and this place. Beck could be here any minute.”

“Right.” He muttered and was up on his feet, trying to get his shaking under control. “Alright, manual lock down is in the front lobby. We should do that first and then take care of them.” He gestured to Wanda, then realized she was still on the floor.

When Steve went to pick her up, Bucky pointed out, “We should probably bring the fight to her, cut her off before she can get here.”

Steve nodded as he placed Wanda on her bed, “You’re right. We can get a car and exit through the garage.”

On their way through the compound, they started to flip on lights to see where power was working. Thoughts ran wild with Steve a they did this. So far, it seemed like everyone was after him to have sex with him. And only him. Which begged questions like why wasn’t he effected? Why wasn’t Bucky gunning after him? The only effect he was outwardly experiencing was being slightly off kilter and kinda flushed.

“Wait,” Bucky stopped him, just before they reached the lobby, “does this part really require two people?”

“What do you mean?” Steve asked.

“I mean, why don’t I start lockdown on the team and you take care of this? Then we meet at the garage?” Bucky explained.

Steve thought about it for a sec and started to shake his head, “I don’t know, I really don’t like the idea of splitting up. What if something happens?”

“We get five minutes, lockdown can’t take that long. All we gotta do is pull a wheel to release the doors.” Bucky reasoned. “We don’t got a lot of time. If either one of us ain’t on that garage in five minutes, we know where to find each other.”

It was true, they both didn’t have to go together and they were pressed for time. Steve gave up, “Fine, we split up. Five minutes.”

Bucky smiled, patted Steve on the shoulder and started to jog back to the rooms. Not wanting to waste time, Steve also jogged the rest of the way to the lobby. Up the stairs on the second floor, there was a removable panel that had a big steel wheel behind it. As Bucky said, when Steve turned it the titanium lockdown doors flew down to cover every possible entrance including the bullet proof glass windows. Tony was very cautious when he built this place.

Just as he was about to go to the garage, his phone started to vibrate. Bruce was calling him.

He answered it, “What’s up?”

“She’s there right now, Steve! Are you guys okay? Did you lockdown?” Bruce was frantic. Off the phone, Steve could hear Tony telling him to calm down, just as frantic.

“Bruce, it’s under control.” Steve assured as he went down the stairs, “The facility is locked up. On the other hand, the team is down.”

“What do you mean the team is down?! What’s going on?!” Bruce somehow sounded even more frantic.

Suddenly, a gun cocked and Steve looked up, stopping dead in his tracks on the stairs. Brianna Beck, dressed in all black, stood in the middle of the lobby, pointing one of Starks modified guns straight at him. She smiled and waved at him. He noted that her nails were instead sharp claws.

When she first came to them, Steve wasn’t actually there, so he never saw her. A lot of her features were changed. Her eyes were sharp and gold in color. Her canines were longer and sharper, but sat outside her mouth, unable to fit with the rest of her teeth. Just under her hair, he could see that her ears had grown longer and were now pointed. And then fur, matching her straw colored hair, was lightly growing in on parts of her skin. This certainly isn’t the height of completely, out of this world, shocking to Steve, but it was up there.

“I gotta go.” Steve said as calmly as he could.

“What! No don’t hang -” he ended the call and put it back into his pocket.

Beck looked smug, “I had my doubts about this mission, but it really pulled through.”

“What mission would that be?” Steve asked, not really caring about the answer, he just wanted to stall for Bucky to get to him.

Beck was quiet as she considered his question, then she spoke, “We wanted to learn about you. Your science still astounds us. According to our intel, you should be dead. A hundred times over. Word on the street says that it’s impossible.”

“Do you want me dead?” Steve asked.

“That’s the big question, isn’t it Captain Rogers. A lot of people do want you dead, for revenge or just so you’ll get out of the way. We don’t.” She purred softly, “We want to study you, we want to test your limits. It would be a shame to throw all that away.”

“Who is we?” He needed a little more time.

Beck scoffed, “Wouldn’t you like to know. I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you what’s wrong with your little friends.”

“Then tell me.”

“Well, as you know, we’ve had a lot of success from our animal studies.” Beck began walking up the stairs towards Steve, keeping her gun directly on him, “We were able to examine their instincts and instinct based hormones, and then leaned how to concentrate it.”

Just then, footsteps approached. It was not Bucky. From the hallway, Natasha, Clint, Sam, and Wanda emerged. They all had that same drugged looked, Sam and Clint looking worse. For some reason though, they stopped short. Beck glanced at them and smirked.

“You see, you and I are exuding different hormones.” She finally looked back at him, “You were injected with one to attract their pheromones, to mate violently. My experimentation didn’t end with rewriting my DNA with another animal, but with coming up with a repellant that exudes when I’m threatened. As soon as I move or if you try to fight and distance yourself, they’ll be on you. And you really don’t want me to shoot any of them, do you?”

“How are they not unconscious? I knocked them all out with a tranquilizer.” Steve asked. He wanted try to preserve the notion that he was working alone, so Bucky could have surprise on his side. Steve assumed he was around somewhere already.

“You didn’t shoot them twice.” She looked irritated, “When I said I didn’t think this plan would work, it was because of our lab. I called my superiors for a mission update and god did you screw us. Our security wasn’t supposed to be as effected but because you shot them twice, they were detained and are now useless. But you underestimated our drugs and here they are.”

Steve was resisting the urge to kick himself. He should have done exactly that, but she was right. He forced himself keep talking though, “So why am I not acting like them? And why hasn’t it worn off yet.”

Beck rolled her eyes, “We work with enhanced humans, Captain. We know how to work around the obstacle that is your metabolism. Also, we worked the drug into a neutral effect.” Then, she left one hand off her gun to retrieve her phone to answer it. She smiled wide, “And now I’m done stalling. Our ride is here. Let’s go.” She hung up, then walked behind him, gun pressed to his lower back.

Just as he was thinking out a plan to overtake her, he heard a gun go off and suddenly, her weight dropped onto him. Swiftly, Steve turned and caught her, but more importantly, caught her hand so she didn’t shoot him by accident. Not incredibly carefully, he put her on the ground and then looked up.

Bucky was up on the second floor, still barring his tranquilizer. When Steve was about to make a comment, Bucky’s eyes flew to the side and he sent one quick shot off, but one very strong grip overtook Steve from behind, trying to claw his harness off. It was awkward with his shield in the way. Gripping the arms wrapped his torso, he used a great amount of strength and flipped whoever was on his back onto the ground. It was Natasha. For some reason, she was the most aggressive of them. Which, wasn’t actually true, because Wanda had been previously the biggest threat. A glance over and Wanda was on the ground, unconscious. It was her that Bucky was able to shoot.

It was almost comical, how Steve fought off Natasha’s aggressive and desperate attacks, Clint and Sam had lied down to just lazily watch.

After a minute, Steve was finally able to get a good grip on her for Bucky to shoot her in the neck. That would most likely bruise later and Bucky might pay for that. It depends on her priorities. As Steve gently laid her on the ground, Bucky also took out Clint and Sam. Neither had made solid attempt to get up.

Not wanting to waste time or the opportunity to capture more of these people, Steve called out for Bucky to follow him to the garage.

As they ran, Steve’s shield now on his arm, ready to stop whatever vehicle, he asked Bucky, “So what exactly happened? Did you wait for me?”

They burst through a door and into the stairwell that would lead to the garage. “Ah, no not exactly.” Bucky answered.

They finally made it and Steve began deactivating the garage door, which had a separate lockdown system that always had to be activated. Tony loved his cars.

“I went to my room first because I forgot my phone. Then I looked back in the rooms and everyone was gone. So I went upstairs to cut them off and then I heard you talking to someone, so I hid and waited.”

Steve nodded and stood aside as the door opened. Then he realized that the garage was a long tunnel up and they would to drive up. When Steve turned to mention it to Bucky, he found the space empty. Further investigation found his friend sitting on one of the motorcycles.

“You sure you’re okay to drive?” Steve asked, walking towards him.

“I’m fine. Just get on.” Bucky said and then turned it on.

The reprimand for Bucky driving while drugged, even a little, would have to come later. Steve climbed on and gripped onto Bucky’s waist. He tried his hardest to keep his face from turning red. They were in danger, this wasn’t a time to get embarrassed. As they took off, however, Steve was never more aware that he was still shirtless and only wearing the leather straps of his shield harness and barefoot. There was no avoiding the blush now, not even with the cold of the night blowing on them.

Bucky weaved his way out of the dark tunnel and onto level ground. Over at the roundabout entrance that led to the lobby, three black bulletproof SUV’s sat outside, waiting. Using the gun he liberated from Beck, as soon as Bucky got close enough, he aimed to shoot at their tires. Steve only got one tire on the closest one, because Bucky had swerve to avoid the now oncoming gunfire coming from the cars.

One car remained stationary as the other two took off to chase them. Steve was able to shoot out more tires, but it didn’t hinder them at all. Soon, he was going to run out of bullets. Bucky seemed to realize that too, because he started to drive towards the open grass area and yelled at Steve to jump. Together, holding each other tight, they leapt off the bike, Steve bracing the shield under them and landed hard onto the ground.

No matter how much he hurt right now, he was grateful that Bucky’s plan worked, and the first car crashed into the motorcycle, making the second car following crash as well. However, there was then the third car coming back into play. Steve and Bucky grunted in pain but scrambled up to deal with this car. Steve was trying to figure out a way to throw his shield into it without causing it to badly crash and kill anyone inside. Their mission was still no kill, they needed any information they could get.

Just as Bucky began tugging on his arm so they could find cover to come up with a plan, it was no longer necessary.

Because Tony finally showed up. All red and pale gold, suited up. He landed right in front of the third SUV, making the car crash into him. Bucky and Steve ran over to start apprehending everyone who was conscious by tranquilizing them and then dragging out the unconscious from each car onto the grass. Somehow, Tony kept small magnetic hand cuffs in his suit and started to cuff them.

After that was done, Tony plugged in his suit to a panel and overrode the lock up, letting them into the lobby. “What the hell happened here?” Tony asked, his faceplate retracted, looking around at all the unconscious Avengers.

Bucky made the rounds to shoot them again, just to make sure they stayed unconscious for a little while longer, including Beck. Sounding tired, Steve began to explain what happened to everyone and what Beck told him. While he explained, he gestured for them to help pick everyone up to take them to the common room, because their rooms were too far. Tony stepped out of his suit to pick up Wanda and the suit followed the command to pick up Sam.

Steve was finally done explaining when they walked back to the lobby, where Tony also restrained Beck and had the suit carry her to wait with the others to be detained and questioned.

After everything, Tony tiredly waved a hand at Steve, “So, what’s going on here, is this a new look you’re going for? Bondage man?”

Bucky snickered, and Steve refused to blush this time, “No. I couldn’t find my shirt.”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad look.” Tony rattled on, “Probably just not combat ready. Certainly not family friendly.”

Heaving a big sigh, Steve gestured to the parking lot, “Are you good here? Because Bucky and I need some sleep.”

Tony waved him off, “You look like shit. It’s all taken care. I’ll fly them out to get them fixed. You two go sleep.”

Blissfully, Steve and Bucky did exactly that.

-

“And that was that.” Steve said. “We’re still trying to figure out who they work for, but Wanda’s theory is proving the most likely with every new piece of information.”

“Is your team okay?” Nicole asked sincerely.

Steve nodded, “Yeah they just had to wait it out. Apparently, while it’s still strong with men, it makes them weak and lazy. Which is why neither Sam or Clint were much of a threat.”

“And why Ms. Romanov and Ms. Maximoff were so aggressive.” She finished for him.

“Exactly.” Steve said, “Hormones are very dangerous.” They both chuckled at that.

“So I’m curious, what happened to Bucky? He remained barely effected?” She asked.

Steve furrowed his brow, “That’s an excellent question. I’ve asked about it. To both Bucky and Stark. I got two different answers.” Steve sat forward, resting his arms on his thighs, still also confused about it.

“What did they say?”

Steve scratched the back of his head, “Well, when I asked Bucky about it, he gave me the same answer about not really feeling the effects, just feeling fatigued and light headed, his serum probably just diluted it. But Tony finally worked out what happened with my serum and my injection.” He looked up, staring out the window, “Beck said they knew how to get around serums because they work with them. It was that drug they used earlier. On the mission. That’s how they got it to work on me.”

Realization dawned on Nicole’s face, and she nodded in understanding.

“Thing is,” Steve continued, “it was used in all injections. It doesn’t just temporarily counteract my serum, it was also to successfully inhibit immune systems so the hormones could be accepted and take effect. So according to both Tony and Bruce, Bucky should have been effected more thoroughly.”

For a moment, she seemed to come to some conclusion, but stopped short of explaining.

Steve squinted at her, “What are you thinking?”

She looked torn between voicing her advice and moving on. Finally, she came to a decision, “I know we’ve only touched on the subject once and you don’t want to entertain thoughts, but i don’t think it’s avoidable now.”

Almost instantly, Steve caught on to what she was talking about and began shaking his head.

“Steve.” She said softly, “It makes sense. Even the science behind it. That poor boy has had his fair share of torture. I know you don’t think it’s possible, but it is.”

“Ma'am, there’s no way he feels the same as me.” Steve argued, just like he argued last time, “He’s straight. And he’s always been the braver one, he would have said something by now.”

“He may not have a choice. I only know what you’ve told me, and I would bet he was trained to the bone to fully suppress any sudden emotions. Especially if he already had years of practise with this particular urge.” Nicole said, firm with her theory.

Steve blew out a breath because he couldn’t think clearly. He leaned backwards onto the couch and rubbed his hands tiredly across his face. It made sense but was just too much to process.

“Listen,” she continued, “you know where I am on this subject, regardless of who feels what. I stand firm that you need to move on with this part of your life and at least receive closure. Aren’t you tired?”

Those words rang out to him. Because it was true. He was exhausted. Carefully treading their conversations and how he acted and keeping his feelings in check, constantly waking up from exhausting dreams. Sure, if Bucky didn’t feel the same, it would take work to maintain their friendship. But at least Steve could do it and not have to be chained down to his feelings and put on an act around the one person he was supposed to be able to trust.

“You’re right. I’m very tired.” Annoyingly, his eyes started to prickle, threatening tears. Steve didn’t actually mind crying in therapy, but not after one subject. It was usually towards the end of his sessions. He nodded at her regardless, “I’ll talk to him tonight.”

She smiled at him encouragingly, “That’s good. If things don’t work out, don’t you worry. I got you.”

Steve gave her a watery smile, “Thank you.”

She handed him the box of tissues, “Well you managed to talk for 30 minutes. We still have more time. Anything else you want to talk about?”

And they talked. They went through the rest session, Steve talking about parts from the story, other stuff that bothered him. A memory that crept up on him yesterday, from the war.

They talked it out and Steve left the office feeling like he always does, somehow lighter than ever but also like he was carrying a million books for homework that’s about him.

…

Back at home, he was able to be left alone with his thoughts. That was a rule around the compound, after therapy, unless the person seeks out company, leave them be. One positive thing was that no one was actively avoiding him after the incident. Steve talked to everyone when they came back from quarantine that he held no ill will towards anyone. Of course that didn’t stop everyone from apologizing.

Steve was sat in his favorite chair, drawing mushrooms. There was one person he wasn’t avoiding, which was why he sat in the open of their living quarters. He was going to keep his promise and talk to Bucky. Friday warned him that Bucky was going to be home soon. He and Clint went out for lunch.

Quietly, Steve also talked things over with Friday. It took Steve a while to get over talking with Jarvis when he was the AI, but it got easier. With Friday it was still very strange because she sounded human and acted it, with a few exceptions on following commands. With Jarvis, it was only sometimes he would forget that he wasn’t talking to a person.

Regardless of it being strange, Steve still liked talking with her, she helped simplify his thoughts and organise his plans. She was very supportive when Steve told her about confessing to Bucky and helped rout his best way of wording things. She also gave him good odds on the possibility that Bucky felt the same way.

“Mr.Barnes has arrived back to the facility, should I direct him here?” She asked, once again reminding him that she was not human.

Steve set down his sketch book, anxiety and anticipation striking him very suddenly. “Yes, please.” He answered her, then got up and started to pace from the living room to the kitchen. A couple decades worth of a secret will be laid bare in about five minutes. He wanted to approach the subject calmly and confidently, but with every passing second that plan was inching its way out the window. Which wasn’t good.

So Steve stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath through his nose and then released it back out his mouth. “Friday, can you tell me everything will be fine?” He asked, too desperate to feel ridiculous.

“Everything will be fine, Captain Rogers.” Friday said. Oddly enough, Steve felt slightly assured. He didn’t expect that to work even a little. “Good luck.”

That was her way of warning him of Bucky opening the door and entering the room, throwing out a casual, “Hey Steve!” He was wearing black cargo shorts, his hair was mostly down, but his bangs had been pulled back into a bun. Bucky looked good.

Desperately, Steve tried to reply just as casually, but as soon as he spoke, Bucky snapped his head in Steve’s direction, worry written all over his face. “You okay? Did something happen in therapy?”

“No - well, yeah actually,” Steve stuttered, making his way back to his chair and sitting heavily into it, “I’m okay. I was just given some homework.”

Bucky nodded as he walked over to him and took a seat on the couch. “Well, you know me. I’m here for you.”

“There’s something I actually need to tell you.” God, he wished he felt as strong as his voice sounded.

The worry on Bucky’s face turned even more intense and he shifted to the arm of the couch to be closer to Steve. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” Steve shook his head and tried to smile reassuringly, “No, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then I did something right?” Bucky smiled, trying to make Steve feel lighter. That was one of the things he did that made Steve love him, he couldn’t help but obliging and smiling.

“You could say that.” Steve said, leaning forward, “Really depends on your opinion of the subject.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, “You’re killing me here Steve. Come on, you can tell me anything.”

Taking another deep breath, Steve said, “Right. Well, you know I had therapy today.” Bucky nodded, “Nicole and I got to talking about you and I. We’ve talked about our friendship before. Certain things. Things I’ve kept from you. And today she asked if I was tired of keeping things from you. I said I am. You deserve the truth.”

And damn, Bucky was looking at him with such support and no judgement. This was another reason Steve was head over heels for this man. Bucky was with him, no matter what.

“The truth is, I’m in love with you.”

Bucky sucked in a sharp breath, and Steve had not ever felt this elated and scared in his life.

Then Bucky fucking squinted and asked, “Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Steve shot back, unthinking.

“I don’t know how to be more narrow, Steve.” Bucky said, shrugging, “Why are you in love with me?”

And Steve just stared at him, mouth agape. After a solid minute of trying to process such a question, he finally squeaked out, “Because you’re you!”

“I’m me?”

“Yes you’re - fuck.” Steve ran his hands through hair, standing up and pacing again, “It’s shit like this. You drive me crazy.”

“I drive you crazy?” Bucky asked incredulously, his eyes following Steve, “I’m not the one diving from planes without a parachute, Steve.”

“You like to remind me of embarrassing stuff, scare the fuck out of me with loud, sudden opera music, get me to dance when we both know I can’t, and you still take care of me when I’m hurt. You drive me up the walls and you make feel so alive.” Steve said, hands gesturing wildly, feeling the conviction of his words deep in his bones.

Bucky asked slowly, “How d'you figure that?”

Steve stopped in front of him, looking down at the coffee table, any sense of anxiety long gone, “Because I’ve lived without you. Too many times. It always adds up. When you’re gone, I don’t know what to do with myself, but when I’m with you it doesn’t matter what I’m doing because I’m just so happy to be with you.” He never planned on being this honest so quickly. Maybe if Bucky had been curious down the road and asked, Steve would’ve said the same thing, but less intense. But now everything really was out on the table and maybe he could take it back, except he was no coward.

Bucky asked slowly, “How d'you figure that?”

Steve stopped in front of him, looking down at the coffee table, any sense of anxiety long gone, “Because I’ve lived without you. Too many times. It always adds up. When you’re gone, I don’t know what to do with myself, but when I’m with you it doesn’t matter what I’m doing because I’m just so happy to be with you.” He never planned on being this honest so quickly. Maybe if Bucky had been curious down the road and asked, Steve would’ve said the same thing, but less intense. But now everything really was out on the table and maybe he could take it back, except he was no coward.

When he finally looked up, it was Bucky’s turn to look up at him with wide eyes, mouth agape. Then, Steve’s heart broke as Bucky started to truly process the words and curl in on himself. After a moment, he spoke low and sad, “You say you love me because I’m me. But I’m not me. I’m not that guy from 1943.”

Steve couldn’t stand the distance between them and closed it, sitting himself on the old wooden coffee table across from Bucky, knocking their knees together. It made Bucky look up at him. “I dunno if you’ve noticed,” Steve gestured to himself, “but I’m not either.”

This did not reassure Bucky, who rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Your body may have changed Steve, but you’re still the angriest, most stubborn, heart of gold asshole you’ve always been.”

Steve shook his head, “See that’s my point. I’m me and you are you, but we are different. You used to talk a mile a minute when we were kids, but then you joined the army and you came back from training still excited about things, you were just quiet about them. You somehow still have a sweet tooth, but now you hate the sight of fish, even though most of our meals used to be fish because you worked for a fisherman at one point.”

Fucking finally, Bucky cracked a small smile and gently grabbed Steve’s left hand and started playing with it, “You used to love baseball, but now you constantly watch ice skating videos. I think I get it. You loved me then, but you love me now. Just like I do.”

Steve smiled, looking at their hands, “I’m glad you get it. I didn’t -” he looked up sharply, everything Bucky said processing. Bucky was completely calm, still poking and prodding his hand. “You - you?” He wasn’t able to articulate his question at the moment.

Regardless, his question was understood, Bucky looked up sheepishly and muttered, “Of course, Steve. I’ve always been stuck on you.”

It felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest, his face was red and his brain was just broken. The only thought going through his head was “Bucky loves me”. Steve was completely useless in that moment. If that fucking Avengers alarm went off, Steve would not hear it.

The only thing that brought him back was Bucky laughing and touched his cheek, scooting forward to rest his forehead against Steve’s. Steve realized he had frozen and that his cheeks were hurting for grinning like an idiot in love.

“So, this week. You were affected.” Steve said, the hand Bucky had been playing with intertwining with his.

Bucky closed his eyes, “Already felt like jumping your bones before. I already knew how to ignore it. Except of course, it felt different. More lazy. And something was wrong so I forced myself to focus.” He then opened his eyes, and they were hooded, “You parading around shirtless in that fucking shield harness really tested me though.”

“Oh.” Steve whispered, lust coursing through his body.

“Yeah.” Bucky breathed, then hauled Steve upward by the waist and onto his lap, then they were kissing.

It was as if Bucky had awakened something in Steve. Because Natasha had been right, his last kiss had been in 1945 and he hadn’t even had much experience beforehand. He just didn’t want her to be right. Except, technically he was right. Bucky was his right partner and he lit a fire in Steve. Their lips moved against one another at the right time, Steve opened his mouth to let Bucky slip his tongue in, and Steve even made Bucky moan by biting his bottom lip.

Of course, it didn’t mean Steve was automatically an expert. He didn’t know where to put his hands, he tried to make as little noise as possible because he was embarrassed by them, and he didn’t know if he was allowed to fully sit on Bucky because he was instantly, achingly hard.

Everything was okay though. Because Bucky was with him. He took Steve’s hands and whispered, “Touch me anywhere.”

When Steve accidentally let a whimper out, Bucky grasped in his ear, “Oh fuck, let me hear more.”

Then Bucky put his hands on Steve’s hips, pulled back and looked at him, “Unless you don’t wanna be here, you can relax Stevie.”

Steve practically melted like butter at being called his old nickname. He was surprised to feel the hardness of Bucky brush against his own erection as he sat fully in his lap, realizing that he caused that. Wanting more, Steve ground down just right, moved hair out of the way and latched onto Bucky’s neck, sucking a kiss right below his chin. The metal hand snaked under Steve’s shirt and pressed him closer, while the other got in between them to start unzipping their pants.

The idea of having Bucky touch his cock made him very eager to have it at that very instant, so he helped unbutton and shove the cloth out of the way and he made the loudest moan when Bucky’s hot hand got around him. But Steve needed more, and he was determined to get his hand around Bucky’s.

When he finally did, Bucky whimpered, “Oh god, Steve.” Which went straight to Steve’s cock. Not knowing about Bucky, but this was new to Steve. Sure, he’d known how to take care of himself, but he didn’t know what Bucky liked.

The answer was simple. “Tell me what you want me to do.” Steve said heavily. He got his intended reaction, Bucky groaned and tried to grind into Steve’s hand.

“Fuck, tighten it.” He said, “Yeah that’s it. God get your shirt off, I wanna see you.”

As much as Steve didn’t wanna stop, he obliged as quickly as possible, tearing it at the collar a little bit. When he went for Bucky’s hem, his metal hand stopped him and their eyes met. “You sure about that?” Bucky muttered.

Steve licked his lips, “If you don’t wanna, that’s fine. But if it’s for my sake, I love you.” He brought the metal hand up to his lips, pressing a kiss to his fingers, “I love all of you. Whatever you’ll give me.”

And just like that, Bucky surged forward, stealing a wet, dirty kiss from him. Then, just as suddenly, he leaned away and got rid of his shirt. Of course, his eyes landed on the myriad of scars lining Bucky’s left side, but Steve was also presented with a flushed expanse of skin that he immediately got his mouth on, as well as getting his hand back to work. He also took the advice and made it as tight as Bucky told.

There would be another opportunity to slowly kiss and lovingly caress Bucky’s biggest insecurity. One where he had time.

And Bucky, god damn he was vocal about all of it. He kept iterating how beautiful Steve was, and how good he felt. It all went perfectly with Bucky working his own hand on Steve’s cock. Neither of them were perfect, Steve suspected maybe Bucky didn’t have experience with this and was just a good adapter, but it felt fucking amazing regardless.

Soon, too soon, they both started to get more desperate, painting harder and stroking faster. Even Steve was making these little breathy noises, which Bucky fucking loved, voicing as such. He was finally quiet as he began to bite and suck his way around Steve’s neck, creating a map along his skin. Loving the feeling, Steve’s free hand shot into Bucky’s hair, urging him into the crook of Steve’s neck. Bucky then nudged Steve’s hand out of the way and took both of their cocks in his hand and went at it, making Steve stutter his hips into it.

As he felt himself grow closer, Steve pulled Bucky’s head back from his neck and kissed him like his life depended on it. A few more fucks into Bucky’s hand and Steve was finally gone, coming on Bucky’s stomach. Steve wanted Bucky to feel just as good, so he made their kiss dirtier, licking his way into Bucky’s mouth, biting his bottom lip and moaning real loud. Bucky was loving it all and he too began to come, all over Steve’s stomach.

Then they just sat there, sweaty foreheads pushed together, hands finding one another and honest to god giggling. “Can’t believe we just did that.” Bucky said, grinning ear to ear.

“I can’t either.” Steve said, also grinning. “God, I love you so much.”

“I love you so much.” Bucky growled back and they kissed and kissed and kissed. The two stayed that way until the mess they made together was no longer avoidable.

When they cleaned up, Bucky took Steve’s hands and brought him to his room, got real close and personal to gently remove Steve’s pants and boxers, stripped his own, and pulled him into bed. For a moment, they arranged themselves into comfortable positions, Steve laying propped up on the pillows, Bucky laying sidled up next to him, setting his head on Steve’s chest.

After a while, Bucky had begun to trace little patterns on Steve's chest, which tickled, but also felt nice. Suddenly, Steve had been reminded of one of his dreams. There was one where he and Bucky were sitting intimately on a couch, talking about the past and the room was starting to flood with water. It occurred to him that this was probably a good opportunity to bring it up.

”You know,” Steve started, “for a while, I'd been having dreams about us.” 

Bucky smirked up at him, “Good dreams?”

“Ah, not exactly.” Steve winced. Bucky sat up, looking at him curiously. “Usually we're just talking and then something tries to interrupt us. Nicole says I'm basically worried you won't always be here.”

With a soft smile, Bucky settled against Steve again, “I don't know about you, but I don't really plan on leaving any time soon. Even before all this,” he gestured to them, “I still wanted to be here. I came back for a reason, Steve. I missed you too much.” 

And Steve just couldn't help himself, he lifted Bucky's chin and kissed him hard, caught up in loving him so much. Silently, he hoped this was a good confirmation for his dreams, because it certainly felt like it. They spent a while like that, dissolving into soft kissing, and then Bucky’s mouth slowly exploring Steve's neck. Somehow, it wasn't sexual. This was purely just sweet and discovery.

Then Bucky spoke, “Feel like reading to me? I loved listening to your voice back in the day.”

Steve smiled and nodded, picking up the book on Bucky’s nightstand and began reading from the bookmark. It wasn’t until the next chapter that Steve realized he was reading gay erotica, making Bucky hoot with laughter at his shock. He hooked a leg over Steve’s and straddled his hips, “Go on, Stevie. Keep reading.” The mood had just shifted and Steve felt very hot as he continued reading.

Bucky drove him crazy and yet, Steve was no coward, he took that challenge head on. It was was that attitude that had gotten him this far.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't try to make sense of the science, I tried to do research and make it at least somewhat true, but it really just becomes comic book science, so just go with it.
> 
> I love my friends so much, thank you to my friends, John and Marty for helping me edit this!


End file.
